With words and promises of action, marchers honor Martin Luther King Jr.

Monday’s Martin Luther King Day march through downtown San Diego ended with a rally. Several speakers noted that, while the late civil rights leader cherished eloquence, he placed a higher value on action.

“This is a journey,” said Abdur-Rahim Hameed, “not a speech.”

So Hameed, president and CEO of the National Black Contractors Association, stood on the plaza near San Diego City Hall and called for more opportunities for African-Americans in the building trades.

Bishop Cornelius Bowser of Charity Apostolic Church called for criminal justice reform.

And the Rev. Shane Harris, head of the National Action Network’s San Diego chapter, demanded a solution to a homelessness crisis that is more permanent than the temporary tents approved by Mayor Faulconer and the City Council.

“We have a mayor who is doing something about homelessness, but is not doing enough,” said Harris, who organized the mid-day event. “A tent does not provide a transition back into society.”

King, who was assassinated 50 years ago this April, may not have directly addressed each of these issues. But the 220 people who marched from San Diego City College to the San Diego Concourse said they were honoring the late civil rights leader’s spirit.

“We come, O God, like he did,” Pastor Peyton Blanchard Harrison Jr. of the Grace Covenant Christian Church said in an invocation, “to march in peace, to march in love, to march as witness.”

The marchers included several dozen clergy, both Christian and Muslim; members of Local 30 Unite Here!, a hotel workers union; the San Diego Black Panthers; Indivisible San Diego; San Diego City Council member David Alvarez and Ammar Campa-Najjar, a former Obama administration official running for Congress against Republican Duncan Hunter Jr. in the 50th District.

The crowd was dotted with signs referencing national political issues and movements: “Black Lives Matter,” “Refugees and Immigrant Rights Are Human Rights,” “Impeach 45! Now!”

In the current political environment, Wendy Batterson said, the lines between national and local issues have been blurred.

“”Everybody’s got friends, family, co-workers of all colors and ethnicities,” said Batterson, one of the leaders of Indivisible San Diego. “We are all mixed, all inter-related and we need to stand up for each other.”

Several speakers cited reports that President Trump had referred to immigrants coming from “shithole” countries. Those words — and actions like the administration’s attempt to build a border wall — fly against King’s compassionate example, Alvarez said.

“We are going backwards,” the council member said. “If we could just reflect a little bit of the way Dr. Martin Luther King was in the ‘50s and ‘60s — throughout his life — this would be a better world.”